Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Fame in my Flip Flops

I was both humbled and gratified upon being notified by the Iron Kahuna of my academy award for best supporting actor. (I'll expect my Speedo-bedecked statuette any day in the mail). No, seriously I was. To be regarded as generous and supportive is quite a change. In times past, social shyness has been mistaken as arrogance, someone I don't want to be. Today, if you want an encourager or a cheering section, I'm your guy.

Buuuuuuuuut, I feel like my 15 minutes of triathlete fame is a bit tarnished--sort of like showing up at the Whitehouse to meet the President in your flip flops. (See the girls in the front row at the left side). Consider all the studly race photos and profile pics of me out there in the public domain, all of the many options to show off my triathlete hawtedness. Does the Kahuna pick those?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Curly Su gets to look lovely and complex in her beautiful, pensive pose.

Maybe my massive publicity campaign offended the academy voters. Oh well. I'm not one to complain. My publicist and my people, however, thought we should get some competing photos out there. Actually, I have some race photos saved up from the Disney Marathon that I have been meaning to share. They actually tell the story of the race pretty well. (Tri-Chica oggling is highly encouraged. Being oggled is still a delightful and new experience for me.)

The start was magnificent and exciting:

But the weather was skanky. This is about mile 11. Just look at the humidity:

It got hotter, and I got slower. Mile 17 in the Animal Kingdom. At this point I am faking a decent stride:

This is mile 20 or so. Much of the last 10 miles of the race being in the full sun on unforgiving, concrete road surfaces:

You are anything but stand-offish and arrogant! You were my first tri-blogger friend. And I have to say you take a good race photo. I always look like a dork (hence the lack of race photos on my site). I couldn't pull off those ears with such panache.